You really don't want to mess with Sunny Hahn

From the NY Post:

Just two weeks after state Sen. Malcolm Smith’s bribery bust, a Queens GOP boss offered a City Council hopeful the party’s endorsement in exchange for consulting jobs for him or some pals, The Post has learned.

First Vice Chairman Stephen Graves — a regular in poker games with Smith’s co-defendants, City Councilman Dan Halloran and ex-Republican power broker Vincent Tabone — made the pitch to Sunny Hahn on April 16, sources said.

He promised her the party’s endorsement as she looks to challenge Councilman Peter Koo for his Flushing seat. Koo was elected in 2009 on the GOP ticket, but later became a Democrat.

“If you . . . consider hiring me or [Republican] party people like me, it would help to get an endorsement,” Graves told Hahn, according to multiple sources.

“I called him back the next day and said, ‘I cannot accept an endorsement with conditions,’ ” Hahn told The Post.

Graves got nervous when she refused, and said, “No, didn’t mean that. I didn’t’ mean conditions,” Hahn claimed.

The FBI was immediately told about the alleged shakedown attempt, sources said.

Graves denied offering an endorsement to Hahn in exchange for a consulting gig.

“That is completely, completely, completely and totally, totally a mischaracterization,” he told The Post.

“Even if I were so stupid to be that way in the first place — which I would not — in the current environment, that would be ridiculously dumb.”

Graves claims he stressed to Hahn that only the Queens GOP chairman, Phil Ragusa, could endorse a candidate.

But Ragusa distanced the party from Graves.

“If he went out and did it on his own, that’s not my problem,” he said.

“If what you’re saying is true, clearly, we are very upset because he never had the authority to do such a thing.”

Look folks, local politics is ALL about consulting contracts. You want to run, you have to hire the right firm, or you don't get the backing of the county organization. That goes for Democrats as well as Republicans. It's not about philosophy. It's about tweeding. The consultants get to feed off the 6-to-1 matching funds that we taxpayers hand over to the candidates. This may be one of the few times that a little sunlight has fallen upon the practice.

Queens GOP under FBI investigation

From the NY Post:

The FBI is investigating the Queens Republican Party, its consultants and at least three people it recommended to the city Board of Elections, according to sources recently quizzed by federal agents.

The probe appears to be focused on how board employees may have used their official positions to further their careers as political consultants, as well as their party’s ambitions in local primary elections.

Board employees are recommended by both political parties in each of the five boroughs and are hired by board commissioners.

The names of at least three employees recommended by the Queens GOP — including Stephen Graves, whom the board suspended in April after being caught on tape soliciting cash from a company seeking a contract — came up in questions posed by the FBI, the sources said.

One source said Queens GOP Chairman Philip Ragusa and Executive Vice Chairman Vincent Tabone pushed a board official out of her job for not taking a rival, Myrna Littlewort, off the ballot during a state committee leadership race.

The official, Katherine James, the board’s former deputy chief clerk, said, “They wanted Myrna off the ballot, and there was no way I could do that fair and square.”

The federal probe stems from reports in The Post detailing politicians’ complaints that Queens GOP consultants tried milking them for cash, according to two sources interviewed by the feds.

Graves resigns

From the NY Post:

A city Board of Elections employee caught on tape soliciting a $25,000 “finder’s fee” from a voting-machine company three years ago has resigned, The Post has learned.

Officials said Stephen Graves, a $66,392-a-year systems analyst, submitted his letter of resignation Tuesday.

He also intends to take a leave of absence from his post as first vice chairman of the Queens GOP.